"When you have that in a player, then you don't want to let it go. We've got a strong relationship and it's a joy for people to watch him, in particular myself as a coach.

"He's a very humble man. There's been a lot said and written about Luis, but beneath it all he's a real good guy, who is a true professional. If you're talking about technical ability and mentality, then he's up there with the world's best. He's a brilliant player.

"He probably could have had one or two more today as well. It was nice to see him get a header. He peeled off the shoulder and it was a great ball in by Glen Johnson and a good finish.

"I don't think you can put a price on him at this moment and I wouldn't want to. If you look at the consistency now in his game and the way he's playing, he's really, really enjoying playing at Liverpool and being here.

"At this moment in time, he's up there with the best players in the world."

The result sees Liverpool move into second place in the Premier League, level with Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, who dropped points against Stoke City thanks to a late winner from Liverpool loanee Oussama Assaidi.

While Rodgers was pleased to see results go his side's way - Manchester City and Southampton also played out a 1-1 draw at St Mary's - the manager was keen to retain a sense of perspective.

"We'll just keep going and take each game one at a time," he insisted. "We've got difficult games ahead, but it was always going to be difficult from the first game.

"We'll just go to the next challenge. These were games that were tough for us last year. You give the respect to the players because they are actually making them look a lot more straightforward.

"Today was a good day for us - the other results were good and that's when you need to exploit it and we certainly did that. I'd give the supporters credit as well because they play a huge part in our drive and relentless desire to get goals and their encouragement was great for us."

The 4-1 win over West Ham meant the Reds have now struck four or more goals in four consecutive home games for the first time in 33 years.

While Skrtel's own-goal in the 66th minute induced an element of anxiety around Anfield, Rodgers insists his side showed enough creativity to dominate the match - and believes they could have scored more.

"I was delighted with the victory," said the boss. "There were plenty of elements of the performance that I was very pleased with.

"If you look at the game [against West Ham] last year, we never really created as many chances. But if you look at today, we had 32 attempts and we could have easily doubled the four goals that we had.

"I thought the players worked their socks off from the first whistle. We had to sustain a period when it was at 2-0 and we could have scored four or five. We then conceded the own-goal, but our response from that was brilliant.

"We got control of the game again and we had to defend a lot of long, direct balls into the box. But technically we held up and that won us through.

"We're not perfect. We're a team that's still growing and evolving. And of course it was unfortunate we conceded a goal, but I'm more focused on the positives. We're scoring goals and when we came in here, that was a big issue.

"We'll always want to improve, but it was a really good victory for us today against a strong and committed team."

Before the manager wrapped up his post-match thoughts, there was just time for a word on Friday's 2014 FIFA World Cup draw, which pitted Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard's England against Suarez's Uruguay.

"Luis just smiled and laughed and there was a wee bit of banter amongst them," explained Rodgers. "But it looks a good group with good teams and it should be interesting."